Slippers

"People?" Chen Xiaomeng's eyes widened.

"Exactly." Sister Nuan unconsciously clenched her fingers and said with lingering fear, "Sometimes they're even scarier than ghosts."

The fire in the fireplace was burning brightly, illuminating half the living room.

Fan Li sat in front of the fireplace with a dark expression, occasionally adding a few more logs.

He knew why Sister Nuan had insisted on kicking him out.

The ghosts in this villa had been killed by two men, so their targets for revenge were all men.

The middle-aged man who had died a gruesome death and Xie Yu were examples.

At the thought of it, Fan Li grabbed two more logs with his large hands and tossed them into the fireplace.

The fire blazed higher.

It seemed that only this could dispel the chill in his heart.

Judging by the situation so far, the events had more or less been pieced together. In other words, the mission was almost over. But the closer it got to the end, the more frenzied the ghost would become.

Something was bound to happen tonight.

The only question was who would die.

It was precisely because he had figured this out that he'd rejected the fat man's suggestion that they all sleep together.

The chance of encountering the ghost alone was one in three. But if he gathered with the other two, it would be one hundred percent.

And the fate of anyone targeted by the ghost—fear flashed through his eyes. The ghost rarely killed multiple people at once, but it had happened before.

Besides, he had his own plan.

He was confident that if he stayed here, he could survive until dawn.

His gaze slowly drifted toward the fireplace.

The evidence so far suggested that the ghost had probably drowned when alive, and right in front of him was a blazing fire.

In the study, the fat man crouched in the darkness, hardly daring to breathe.

Unable to hold back any longer, he craned his neck and leaned toward where Jiang Cheng sat, asking in a very quiet voice, "You think the ghost won't know we're hiding here, right?"

"I don't know."

The fat man relaxed a little and muttered quietly, as if reassuring himself, "That's good."

"I said I don't know." Jiang Cheng spoke with exaggerated intonation.

After spending so much time with Jiang Cheng, the fat man had become much more resilient. This time, he only trembled for less than five seconds before he could talk normally again.

"Seriously, brother." The fat man stared at Jiang Cheng. "I don't think you're an ordinary person. When that ghost appeared yesterday, I was scared stiff, but you still remembered what kind of shoes she was wearing."

"You're definitely not a model. You're a cop, right?"

The more the fat man spoke, the more convinced he became that his guess was right. His face lit up with excitement.

To his surprise, Jiang Cheng glanced at him. "You think you'll survive if I'm a cop? Or that the ghost won't kill us if I pull out my badge?"

The fat man's fresh hopes were immediately crushed. He sounded rather resigned as he said, "So we're doomed, then?"

Jiang Cheng was about to speak, but the fat man waved him off and interrupted, his face drawn. "I'm guessing you're going to say only I'm doomed, not us. Right?"

Jiang Cheng sheepishly shut his mouth.

After a while, Jiang Cheng spoke again. "But, Fatty, you don't have to be so pessimistic. There might still be a way out."

Just as the fat man raised his head, about to say something more, Jiang Cheng suddenly motioned for him to be quiet. The fat man immediately shut his mouth.

1 minute

2 minutes

5 minutes

Even after about 10 minutes had passed, the fat man still hadn't heard anything, and nothing had appeared in the room.

He was on high alert, ears pricked.

Jiang Cheng stood up from his chair and quickly glanced toward the desk. The bare desktop's most conspicuous object was a cartoon alarm clock. The fat man heard him muttering something about how nothing was happening.

"Brother," the fat man asked, his voice changing with shock, "you're not waiting for the ghost here, are you?"

"Don't talk." Jiang Cheng frowned and headed for the door. "Wait here. I'll go take a look."

The fat man hurried after him. "No, let's go together."

Jiang Cheng and the fat man came into the hallway. The light overhead was still on, giving off a feeble glow.

Without hesitation, Jiang Cheng went straight to the master bedroom and gently knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, a wary female voice called out, "Who is it?"

"It's me," Jiang Cheng replied. "Hao Shuai."

"What do you want?"

Jiang Cheng said seriously, "I think something's happened to Fan Li."

At that, the door opened slightly, but only a crack. Sister Nuan, who was speaking, revealed just one eye. "How do you know?"

Jiang Cheng quickly glanced toward the end of the hallway by the stairs, then turned back and said hurriedly, "Let's go inside and talk. It's not safe here."

Sister Nuan looked Jiang Cheng and the fat man over through the crack in the door, then finally nodded. "All right."

The door opened.

Sister Nuan stood behind it.

They hadn't dared to turn on the lights either, and the room was pitch-black.

After hearing Jiang Cheng say that something had happened to Fan Li, the fat man suddenly grew tense. He didn't know how Jiang Cheng had reached that conclusion, but, strangely enough, he chose to believe him.

Jiang Cheng went in first, with the fat man following behind.

But just as he was about to step through the doorway, Jiang Cheng suddenly paused. He stopped at the entrance, causing the fat man, right behind him, to bump into him.

Before the fat man could ask what was wrong, Jiang Cheng quickly backed into the hallway.

At the same time, he grabbed the fat man by the shoulder and pulled him back too.

Sister Nuan had already moved aside to make room for them to enter. "Hurry up and get in! What are you waiting for?" she urged.

She kept looking anxiously at the other end of the hallway, as if something would appear there at any moment.

"I left something very important in my room," Jiang Cheng suddenly said. "I'll go back and get it."

Without waiting for Sister Nuan to respond, he placed one hand on the fat man's shoulder. Then the two of them turned around and quickly headed toward the other end of the hallway.

The fat man hadn't expected Jiang Cheng, who looked so thin, to be so strong. Jiang Cheng was practically dragging him along.

His mind was completely blank.

But he wisely kept his opinions to himself until they reached the corner where the hallway met the stairs, and Jiang Cheng pulled him quickly into hiding.

"What did you notice?" the fat man asked, panting.

He saw a few drops of cold sweat trickling down Jiang Cheng's cheek.

Jiang Cheng signaled for him to stay quiet, then moved close to the hallway wall, as if listening for something. A few minutes later, his expression finally returned to normal.

"Something's wrong with Sister Nuan," Jiang Cheng said in a low voice.

The fat man's cheeks trembled. "What's wrong?"

"She's wearing slippers."

"Slippers?"

"Yeah." Jiang Cheng nodded. "I noticed by chance when I entered."

He continued, "We all know how dangerous this villa is. At any moment, we could be hunted by a vicious ghost. How could she take off her shoes and put on a pair of slippers that would make it harder to move?"